I was watching a spoof of a spy movie with my guys the other night, and one of the good spies said to the bad spy “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…” and I started thinking that for some businesses, that’s exactly what their sales process is like.  A big secret that’s on a “need to know” basis – and apparently, they don’t think all their employees “need to know”…

The problem with that approach is, something is going to get killed all right…

Your profits.

When it comes to the message you want your customers to get, it shouldn’t be a secret – especially not from your employees – any one of whom could be the “first point of contact” with a customer.

If you want to make more sales, more often… If you want happy customers who go around telling everyone they know how wonderful you are…

If you want to build a brand that endures over time, an unstable economy and in spite of what your competition does…

Then one of the most important things you can do is to make sure that every single employee understands your sales message, your products or services, and your sales process… And they need to be able to answer any question, problem or concern your customers might have along the way.

Here’s why that’s so important…

A few months ago, we bought a new washing machine.  (We’d had it fixed so often we’re now on a first-name basis with the repairman who makes house calls.)  We did a little research online, to get an idea for prices and features, but to me, a washing machine is one of those things that you just have to be able to see before you buy it.

I like to slam the doors, jiggle the handles and check out the plastic soap trays to see how sturdy they are.  And I wanted to look at the drum, and make sure it didn’t have any plastic parts that we’d had so many problems with in our old machine.

At the first store, we found two models we liked, but there was a big difference in how much weight they would hold.  However, when we asked the salesman to give us an idea of why there was such a big difference and what the cost comparison of running the two machines would be… he was totally clueless.

We went somewhere else.

At the next store, we couldn’t find a salesperson in the washing machine department, and my husband went to ask at the desk if they could send someone to answer my questions.  While he was gone, an employee walked by, and I asked her if she could help me.  She smiled and said she’d try.  She not only answered my questions, but compared different features between 4 different models.  And when my husband came back, she answered his questions – and even subtly led us towards a machine that was over the amount we’d decided we wanted to spend – but it was so obviously a better quality machine, and met all our needs, I was actually grateful she’d shown us the more expensive model.

But when we said we’d take it, she motioned over a young man who’d been standing off to one side, and told us that he would help us with that, because, as it turned out, the washing machines weren’t in her department – she was in electronics.  She told us he could answer any other questions we had, and wished us a good day, and went back to her department.

As we walked up to the cash register, I asked him if she was the store manager, and he said no, that although each employee had their own department, they were trained to be able to answer customers’ questions no matter what department they worked in.  That impressed the heck out of me… And the next time I need an appliance, or we want to replace the stereo or anything else that store sells – you can bet they’re the only place I’m going to go.

They have a sales process that is shared with every employee, and every employee is trained to help answer the customers’ questions… no matter what, no matter who, no matter when.

How about your employees?

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